OFFICE OF ASSESSMENT AND ACCREDITATION

GOAL ASSESSMENT REPORT: AY 10/11

MAJOR: English

Section One: Describe all department activities with respect to improving student learning in the major. This may include new faculty hires, course revisions, assignment creation, rubric revisions, goal evaluations, etc.

Activity Statement:

This year, the English department focused on implementing changes made last year and made further minor adjustments to the English curriculum.

During the 10/11 academic year, the English dept. accomplished the following:

  • Collected data on failure rates in freshman English courses.
  • Implemented changes made in the freshman English curriculum in the teaching of ENG 100 Introduction to College Writing and Reading (non-credit); ENG140 Fundamentals of College Writing (for credit); ENG 141 Rhetoric and Introductory Research Writing; and ENG 142 Writing, Research, and Literature.
  • Implemented diagnostic essays for Freshman Weekend for writing placement, keying them against student ACT scores and the student’s high school G.P.A. to adjust placement.
  • Dr. James Rovira and Dr. Sherry Truffin worked with Prof. Gilreath to slightly revise the WIC rubric for the Spring 2011 semester, and to prepare a complete revision of the WIC Rubric to start in the Fall 2011 semester.
  • Dr. James Rovira, Dr. Sherry Truffin, Dr. Terry Collins, Dr. Mary Grennen, and Dr. Vince Moore presented papers at conferences during the 2010/2011 academic year.
  • Dr. Mary Grennen oversaw the production of two plays (‘Til Beth Do Us Part by Jones, Hope, and Wooton, and The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney).

·  Completed the redesign of the website of the TU Review. Dr. James Rovira supervised Morris Allison’s work on this project. As of today, the website redesign is complete and simply needs to be uploaded to TU’s server.

·  Created ENG 381, Major Authors in English and American Literature, as a requirement for English majors (not English Ed. majors). ENG 313, Theoretical Approaches to Reading and Writing, is no longer a requirement for English majors but continues to be a requirement for English Ed. majors.

·  Dr. Sherry Truffin and Dr. James Rovira both presented on an in-house panel about book publishing for an Arts and Angles.

·  Dr. James Rovira and Prof. Lee Fearnside opened their exhibit Scars at the Kidd Gallery, a combination of Prof. Fearnside’s photography with Dr. Rovira’s poetry along with one minute sound loops of the subjects’ discussion of their scars.

·  Prof. Miriam Fankhauser presented a workshop on “Parallelism” for the Student Success Center and Dr. Laura Lamalie on “Internal Documentation” in the Library.

·  Dr. Sherry Truffin, as Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, hosted workshops on writing evaluation for TU faculty at large. Dr. Mary Grennen presented a session on “Sentences that Send Unclear Messages,” Dr. Vince Moore on “Plagiarism,” Prof. Miriam Fankhauser on “Parallelism,” and Dr. Sherry Truffin on “Common Writing Errors.”

  • Continued sponsoring a contest for Ohio Poetry Day in honor of Dr. Janet Hanna.
  • Focused Outcomes Assessment on literature courses, using Literature Rubric.
  • Focused Outcomes Assessment on ENG 223, Advanced Grammar.
  • Revised our Assessment initiative involving the “Literature in English” Major Field Exam (ETS) to the GRE Subject Test in English. English majors will now be required to take the GRE Subject Test in English. English Ed. majors have the option of taking the Subject Test in English, but will continue to be required to take the Praxis test.
  • Offered summer electives in both the undergrad and grad programs.

Section Two: Describe which program goal(s) in the Major Program Plan was assessed during the academic year.

Intended Outcomes #1:

Literary Canon: Students will demonstrate familiarity with and knowledge of the literary canon. (DM – Career Readiness – Program Specific)

Previous Intended Outcomes:

Students will demonstrate familiarity with the literary canon by scoring an average of 155.2 on the Major Field Exam in Literature in English (ETS).

Future Intended Outcomes:

Students will demonstrate familiarity with the literary canon by meeting or exceeding the national average for the GRE Subject Area Test in English.

Previous Assessment Criteria:

Because the English Department recently revised the English and English Education curriculum, our assessment criterion in this area is modest. Our goal is for 75% of Majors to achieve scores of 155.2 or better on the Major Field Exam in Literature in English (ETS). Note that this criterion will be revised once it has been met for three years in a row (see analysis).

Future Assessment Criteria:

Our goal is for 75% of Majors to achieve scores equivalent to or exceeding the national average in the GRE Subject Area Test in English.

Results of Outcomes Activity:

2008-2009
25% (1 out of 4) students met the goal. / Met/Not Met
Not Met / Data Details
4 students took the exam. Scores were 123, 141, 143, and 163. Mean score was 142.5. The mean score for all students who took the exam between August 2005 and June 2008 was 155.2.
2009-2010
0% (0 out of 3) students met the goal. / Met/Not Met
Not Met / Data Details
3 students took the exam. Scores were 133, 137, and 140. Mean score was 136.6.
2010-2011
No students graduated in the Spring 2011 semester so no students were evaluated on this measure. / Met/Not Met
Not evaluated / Data Details
No students took the exam.

Intended Outcomes #2:

Literary Theory: Students will understand and apply critical theory. In addition to the literary theory discussed when analyzing the literary canon, students will learn the basics of critical theory through ENG 142 (Writing, Research, and Literature), further their knowledge in ENG 441 (Literary Theory), and apply those skills in a range of assignments in upper-division literature courses. Majors are expected to achieve 80% or better in the application of critical theory in written work according to the departmentally developed grading rubric.

(DM – Critical Thinking) (DM – Career Readiness – Program Specific) (DM – Writing Abilities)

Intended Outcomes:

In addition to the literary theory discussed when analyzing the literary canon, students will learn the basics of critical theory. Students will develop and demonstrate competency in literary analysis.

Assessment Criteria:

85% Majors are expected to achieve 80% or better in the application of critical theory in written work according to the departmentally developed grading rubrics in literature courses.

Results of Outcomes Activity:

2006-2007
80% of English majors met outcomes goals of 3 or higher on the Literary Theory component of the literature rubric.
2007-2008
80.6% (25 of 31) assignments by English and English Education majors received scores of 3 (80%) or higher on the Literary Theory component of the literature rubric. / Met/Not Met
Met
Met/Not Met
Met / Data Details
Available on English Goal Assessment Report 06/07
Data Details
Available on English Goal Assessment Report 07/08
2008-2009
82.6% of assignments (19 out of 23) by English and English Education majors received scores of 3 (80%) or higher on the Literary Theory component of the literature rubric. Note that a number of students in ENG 291 received a score of N/A because the paper assignment did not require students to employ the vocabulary of theory. / Met/Not Met
Met / Data Details
Available on English Goal Assessment Report 08/09
2009-2010
77.7% of assignments (21 out of 27) by English and English Education majors received scores of 3 (80%) or higher on the Literary Theory component of the literature rubric. / Met/Not Met (new assessment target)
Not Met / Data Details
(Now tracking by student #)
001: ENG 361-01, 2 (90%)
002: ENG 142-03, 3 (79%)
003: CUL 448-01, 4 (91%), ENG 294-01, 4 (97%), ENG 347-01, 3.5 (96%)
004: ENG 347-01, 0 (65%)
005: CUL 448-01, 3 (63%) and ENG 361-01, 3 (80%)
006: Incomplete
008: CUL 448-01, 4 (87%), ENG 242 (IGS), 4 (93%), ENG 350-1, 4 (96%)
010: ENG 347-01, 2.5 (67%)
011: CUL 448-01, 1 (60%) and ENG 361-01, 2 (65%)
013: ENG 142-07, 2 (70%)
014: CUL 448-1, 4 (91%), ENG 294-01, 4 (100%), and ENG 361-01, 4 (94%)
019: ENG 142-03, 3 (86%)
020: ENG 290H-01, 4 (88%)
021: ENG 242 (IGS), 3 (83%) and ENG 350-1, 3 (85%)
022: CUL 448-01, 4 (100%) and ENG 361-01, 4 (97%)
024: CUL 448-01, 4 (91%) and ENG 347-01, 3.5 (76%)
029: ENG 290H-01, 4 (89%)
2010-2011
94% of assignments (17 of 18 students) by English and English Education majors received scores of 3 (80%) or higher on the Literary Theory component of the literature rubric. / Met/Not Met
Met / Data Details
001: No longer a major.
002: ENG 350-01, 3 (80%)
003: ENG 292-01, 3.5 (85%); ENG 360-01, 3 (80%); ENG 390-01, 3.5 (85%)
004: ENG 360-01, Did not submit papers in his/her ENG class this semester.
005: ENG 292, 3.5 (85%); ENG 348, 3.75 (87.5%)
006: ENG 390-01, Did not submit papers in his/her ENG class this semester.
007: No data collected for this student this semester.
008: No longer a major.
009: No longer a major.
010: No data collected for this student this semester.
011: No data collected for this student this semester.
012: No longer a major.
013: No longer a major.
014: ENG 292-01, 3.5 (85%); ENG 390, 4 (90%)
015: No longer a major.
016: No longer a major.
017: No data collected for this student.
018: No longer a major.
019: No longer a major.
020: ENG 360-01, 2.5 (75%); ENG 390-01, 4.0 (90%)
021: No longer a major.
022: ENG 292-01, 3.5 (85%)
023: ENG 360-01, 3.5 (85%)
024-027: No longer majors.
028: No data collected.
029-030: No data collected.
031: ENG 292-01, 3.5 (85%)
032: ENG 360-01, 3.5 (85%)
033: No data collected

Intended Outcome #3:

Students will demonstrate understanding of and competence in English grammar.

Assessment Criteria:

85% of English and English Education majors will achieve a score of 80% or higher on the final exam in ENG 223. (DM – Career Readiness – Program Specific)

Results of Outcomes Activity:

2005-2006: / Not Met / 66% English and English Education majors achieved a score of 80% or higher, and 62% of non-majors achieved a score of 70% or higher.
2006-2007 / Not Assessed
2007-2008: / Not Met / All of the students enrolled in the course were English and English Education majors except one, and the non-major took an Incomplete in the course and did not take the final exam. 44% of the English and English Education majors achieved a score of 80% or higher, and 22% of them achieved a score of 70% or higher.
2008-2009 / Not Assessed
2009-2010 / Not Met / There were 12 English and English Education majors enrolled in the course. In addition, there was one English minor. 66% of them achieved a score of 80% or higher. 9% (1 student) received a score of 70% or higher. The remaining 25% (3 students) received scores below 70%.
2010-2011 / Not assessed / Advanced Grammar was not taught this year.

Intended Outcome #4:

Senior Seminar

Assessment Criteria:

90% of majors are expected to achieve a score of 90% on their senior seminars for written interpretation and research for the final project in ENG 499. (DM – Writing Abilities) (DM – Research Skills) (DM – Career Readiness – Program Specific)

Results of Outcomes Activity:

2006-2007
33.3% of majors achieved a score of 90% or above on their senior seminar projects. / Met/Not Met
Not Met / Data Details
2 students achieved C grades
1 student achieved an A
2007-2008
50% of majors achieved a score of 90% or above on their senior seminar projects. / Met/Not Met
Not Met / Data Details
2 students achieved A grades
1 student achieved a B
1 student achieved a C
2008-2009
75% of majors who have completed their senior seminar projects have achieved scores of 90% or above. / Met/Not Met
Not Met / Data Details
3 students achieved A grades
1 student achieved a grade of B
2009-2010 / Met/Not Met
Not Met / Data Details (incomplete data)
1 student achieved a grade of A-
1 student achieved a grade of B
1 student received an incomplete
2010-2011 / Met/Not Met
Not Assessed / Data Details (incomplete data)
No students graduated in English or English Ed. in the Spring 2011 semester, so no students completed a senior seminar.

Section Three: Describe analysis of assessment data and action plans for upcoming academic year.

Analysis and Action Plans:

Literary Canon:

No students were scheduled to graduate in the Spring 2011 semester, so no students took the Major Field Exam. The English department is hoping that by shifting to the GRE Subject Test in English for assessment data on this measure that students will worker harder to perform well on this exam as it is more important to their professional futures; i.e., required by, or at least accepted by, graduate programs in English.

Literary Theory:

During Spring term 2010, the English department started tracking literary theory scores in ENG 142 and by student number with an eye to identifying student progress throughout their literature courses. Unfortunately, adjunct faculty has not yet submitted data, resulting in some gaps (i.e., information was not collected for all English and English Education majors taking ENG 142).

Students demonstrated marked improvement in their application of conceptual models to literary texts this year compared to previous years. Of the students measured, 94% of assignments (17 of 18 students) by English and English Education majors received scores of 3 (80%) or higher on the Literary Theory component of the literature rubric. This performance exceeds our goals of 85% of majors achieving 80% or better in the application of critical theory in written work according to the departmentally developed grading rubrics in literature courses.